Design for Change, Not Just Today

👋 Hey there,

Why v1 Is Never the Problem

Let me tell you something most developers don’t realize until it’s too late:

When you’re in the thick of delivery, the focus is on getting things working. But as an architect, your lens has to widen. You’re not just building features, you’re building the ability to change.

And that shift? It’s not just technical. It’s mental.

🧭 The Mindset Shift

From: “How do we build this?”
To: “How do we change this later?”

This is one of the quietest, but most powerful transformations in architectural thinking.
It’s the difference between designing for today’s clarity and designing for tomorrow’s chaos.

Let’s break it down:

• Developers typically optimize for correctness, performance, or elegance now.

• Architects optimize for changeability, adaptability, and resilience later.

That doesn’t mean over-engineering or abstracting everything.
It means recognizing which parts of your system are likely to change, and shaping your design to absorb that change with minimal pain.

🧰 Tool: The Volatility Mapping Worksheet

When I coach engineers stepping into architecture roles, I give them this exercise early:

Here's how it works:

Step 1: Identify key modules or components in your system.

Think APIs, services, workflows, data schemas, and interfaces.

Step 2: Ask two questions for each:

• 🔄 How often will this change? (frequently / occasionally / rarely)

• 💥 What happens when it changes? (isolated / ripple effect / catastrophic)